Compliance complaints 12 Aug 2006

While Microsoft's Group Program Manager for Internet Explorer, Tony Chor, assured Webstock attendees that standards compliance was high on the agenda for IE7, recent reports suggest otherwise. Just weeks after Chor promised that his organisation would support "not only official standards, but defacto standards", Chris Wilson - Microsoft's Lead Program Manager for Internet Explorer - admitted that IE7 will not pass the crucial Acid2 browser-compliance test. (The Acid2 test was designed by the Web Standards Project to help browser vendors ensure that their products support web standards consistently and appropriately).

These revelations have led many critics to call for a complete boycott of IE7. However this is unlikely to happen. Microsoft will deliver IE7 as a "high priority" update via Windows XP's Automatic Updates feature - a tool that will prompt all XP users to install IE7 the moment it is made available to the public (via those annoying little speech bubbles that appear from your taskbar) ensuring that IE6's current level of market penetration is maintained. IE7 will also come pre-installed with Vista of course for those upgrading from XP.

So what's the impact of non-compliance? Well, IE7 - in it's current incarnation at least - will hold back the development of the web significantly. CSS2 gives designers more control over the presentation and accessibility of web content and they are itching to make use of the new opportunities that this standard affords them. They've been itching to use them for more than seven (yes, seven) years! The CSS2 specification was originally published on the 12th May 1998, so it's no wonder they are upset that Internet Explorer - the world's most popular browser - still doesn't support it.